6 week check-in and all is baking STRONG

The Perez family is loving their new oven.  I spoke with Cristina and Laura today and they shared with me their adventures with their baking.  Currently they are making coconut filled empanadas, cinnamon and pineapple rolls, cheese stuffed breads and different varieties of coffee cakes.  

The are doing most of their baking on the week-ends.  Heating the oven up to only 400 degrees and baking the breads at a lower temperature.  Their clientele consists of their standard customers who purchase their eggs, two local grocery stores and the Dole processing plant.  They make over 800 empanadas along with cinnamon and pineapple rolls and other breads depending on demand.   They will soon be testing their baking strategies with biscochos; a corn based, crunchy donut shaped treat.

With $600 still in the bank, we are looking for ways to send a plastic bag sealer, more cash for baking materials, and additional bread baking ideas.  If you know of anyone who is planning to travel to Costa Rica, please let us know.  Also, if you know of any brick bread oven bakers who would be willing to share some of their favorite recipes, please let us know.

Thanks again to all who contributed to the great project.  

It continues to be a great success!   

FINAL PROJECT FINANCIALS:

Income:

     Garage Sale                                                   603

     Garden Party                                                 1,419    
          Gross Contributions     1,760
          Less supplies                  -341
     One Time Donations                                     2,227
     Social Media Campaign                                  1,182

Total Contributions:                                     5,431


Expenses:
     Oven Building Materials                               2,365
     Gazebo Building Materials                              820
     Material Transportation Costs                        325
     Cooking Materials                                         695
     Baking Supplies                                              271
     Cash left for future baking supplies                 235

Total Expenses:                                             4,711         

Cash Remaining:                                            720                         

EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern for our friends in Costa Rica.  I spoke with Cristina and Laura today after the quake.  They are fine and still baking bread!

They did mention the tremor (as they call it) felt quite strong and lasted pretty long.  They are quite a ways from the epicenter so no significant damage occurred in the village.

The oven had already formed a hairline crack by the time I had left two weeks ago.  I guess it's common when you pour two different layers of cement and different times (cement sides poured and then the cement poured over the dome). 

The crack is a bit larger from the quake, but just a crack, nothing major and no smoke leaks or concerns for it's integrity.

They took it all with a grain of salt and laughed saying "At least we now know the oven (and the gazebo) are guaranteed for life!"  They both withstood to 7.6 tremor.

On a separate note, they have been testing additional recipes and have been selling breads to the locals in San Marcos and have already expanded to include their clientele from nearby communities that also purchase their farm fresh eggs.  They have agreed to use some of the funds we left behind to purchase a plastic bag sealer (smart idea... not bugs in the bread)!

Pretty cool!

But ohh how I miss the pizzas!

"...THIS WORLD WOULD BE A DIFFERENT PLACE."

A Letter (and English Translation) from a Costa Rican.

8/25/2012

Estimados familias y amigos:

     Espero que hayan llegado bien a su casa y sobre todo, que hayan disfrutado su paseo a Costa Rica.

     Muchísimas gracias también por la labor humanitaria tan grande que realizaron con la familia Pérez en San Marcos. De parte mía y creo que todavía más de parte de esa gente en San Marcos, mi más grande admiración y respeto por ese trabajo que sin ningún interés realizaron. Me siento sumamente orgulloso por lo humildes que son al venir desde tan lejos a cumplir el sueño de una familia.

     Dígale a todas esas personas que colaboraron con ese proyecto, que si más gente fuera como ellos, este mundo sería completamente diferente del que estamos viviendo hoy día. Como costarricense me siento muy orgulloso de ese espíritu de entrega de la gente de Minesota, pues a través de los años han demostrado un gran amor por este país al ayudar a personas que ni siquiera conocen.

     Como tico puedo decirle a ustedes y a todas esas personas que ayudaron, que la familia Pérez en San Marcos ahora si está !PURA VIDA¡.

Atte.
Cope y familia

8/28/2012

Dear families and friends:

     I hope that you all arrived well in Minnesota and overall that you enjoyed your visit to Costa Rica.  

     Thank you very much for the great humanitarian project you did with the Perez familiy in San Marcos. On my behalf and I also believe on the behalf of all the people in San Marcos, y send my greatest admiration and respect for the work you did, not expecting anything in return!  I feel extremely humbled by your nobleness to go to a place so far away just to help a family reach a dream!

     Tell all the people who collaborated in the project, that if more people were like them, this world would be a very different place that what it is today.  As a Costa Rican I am humbled by the "spirit of giving" that all the Minnesota families have shown. Throughout the years, you all have demonstrated a great love for this country by helping people who you haven't met.

     As a Costa Rican I can tell you all that the Perez family in San Marcos now is "PURA VIDA"!

Sincerely.

Cope and family

10 REASONS TO GIVE THANKS

We are back!  With mixed emotions we are back!  We literally spent the last days in San Marcos baking breads, testing recipes, trouble shooting oven temps and improvising with limited materials and supplies.  I could have easily spent two more weeks (months or years )testing, sampling and marketing our bread.

We could not have done such an amazing job without everyone's incredible financial support, prayers and words of encouragement.  The Perez families sends their deepest and most sincere words of gratitude.  The English language does not have words to describe their humbling sense of gratefulness.

This is not the end of our journey!

We are all so blessed!  

Laura, Cristina and I grateful for GREAT bread

1.  The Perez family feels so blessed to have been a part of this incredible, life changing experience.  The hard work, laughter and friendships made will last a life time.

Chico Solis hauled in over one ton of brick and cement for free and later shared in a pizza party

2.  Thanks to all the many Costa Rican families that participated in the many different stages of the oven building.  We were blessed that special talents (and tools) appeared at the perfect time of need.  All have returned for fresh breads and pizzas.  All have expressed the joy of having participated in this special project.

The SLP clan prior at Poas Volcano, in the clouds (and rain).
Joey's quote of the day "we came all the way here for this?" 

3.  Thanks to the St. Louis Park families who financially supported the project and helped us build the oven (the Amelse family, the Falzone family, and the St. Claire family).  Thank you!  You all incredible people!   Thanks for the hard work and your acceptance of tico time.  We are blessed to have you in our cycle of friends!

John eating the BEST tamales EVER
(and more)!

Caroline and AnaGrace
surfing in Nicaragua

4.   Gracias "pue" to the Schweiters family.  The child exchange of Ana to Nicaragua to surf for John's hard core labor was life changing I'm sure as much for John as it was for AnaGrace.  John was the perfect addition to our team.  He is a wonderful young man, hard working and a great eater.   The San Marcos community will always be your home John.  You are on our return list when we plan our next adventure back to San Marcos.

Nancy and Jeff proud to be together and sharing in our many dreams together

5.  To BFF's!   To all the BFF's in the world.  May you all be as blessed as I am to have a BFF as compassionate, caring and forgiving as I have in my friends Jeff.

Enjoying a little (just a little) time together at Tamarindo Beach

6.  Special thanks to Chato.  Mostly for putting up with me and my crazy adventures.  Thanks Chato for all the hard work you put into trip planning for the Minnesota families, for the muscle work during your limited time back in your country and your patience with us as we struggle to return to a different world back in MN.

West and AnaGrace loving their Costa Rican life

7. Muchisimas Gracias Famila Alvarado for watching over my children (especially abuela Adela, Karen and Mami dos).  When I was busy with the oven project, you protected them, loved them and laughed with them.  It's true that it takes a village to raise a child.  But we are especially blessed to be a part of the whole Alvarado family who has helped us raise two beautiful children.  They are blessed and ohhh so fortunate.

West during a soccer scrimmage with the young boys of San Marcos

8.  To all the children in San Marcos.  They all accepted my children with open harms.  Shared their love and compassion for their country and nursed West back to health during his many injuries.  I will miss those screams of joy!

Teach a family to bake bread and they will be prosper

9.  Again, we want to thank all who have supported the project financially.  We hope to give you a financial update within the week (still waiting on some final I.O.U.'s).  It's been amazing and humbling to know so many of our family and friends were able to financially support this project.

One of God's many gifts we saw during our journey 

10.  For the love of our God.  He was present with us each day, showing His grace and His beauty.  His presence, his blessings and his words of encouragement were abundant during our project.  He provided for our every needs.  He shared sun when we needed sun (remember this is supposed to be the rainy season in Costa Rica).  He gave us bread when we ask for bread.  He even helped us find stuff when we lost it (like water proof cameras).  Cheers to the power of prayer!

We are blessed!  

10 fun facts about bread baking in Costa Rica

1.  It is so hot and humid here that the yeast bread raises FAST!  Really fast!

2.  Some of the best looking bread is baked with the fire in the back of the oven. 

3.  Bread (and pizza of course) baked with fire in the back, has a special smoked taste.

4.  Pizza is awesome no matter what.
Using regular oil vs. olive oil really doesn't matter to a tico (or a gringa). 

5.  If you ask a Costa Rican if they would like to try a calzone,
they will laugh! 

6.  400 degrees isn't hot enough to brown bread,
but just a few secret minutes in an electric oven does the trick.

7.  Baking bread on cookie sheets is A LOT easier
than sweeping the coils and mopping the hearth. 

8.  Baking sweet breads (on cookie sheets of course) in a brick oven are amazing! 

9.  You can easily get rid of multiple batching of bread
with one driver and one speedy passenger.

10.  Costa Rican's LOVE bread.
They love FREE bread.
Then they come back for more (with cash). 

THREE WISHES GRANTED

One last update from Jeff (8/11/2012): 

The voyage home turned out to be a little more interesting than I expected.  Nancy and I got up early so she could take me to the airport in San Jose.  After only about 20 minutes on the road we came upon stopped traffic in a small town called Zapote.  Nancy was able to move forward around a few trucks and cars but we ended up sitting still.  It turns out there was an accident between a car and a motorcycle.  Listing to people talking around he the details in the gossip changed but one thing was common, there was a fatality.  Since we left early we thought there wouldn't be a problem.  So we sat.... and sat.  In the mountains in Costa Rica there aren't exactly any shortcuts to get around things like this.  As time went on we began to realize that I was going to miss my flight.

An endless line of cars among this beautiful landscape

I though that maybe I could get into someone's Wi-Fi with my I-phone so I got out and started to walk ahead.  I went down the hill and up the next one far enough to see around the next bend, only to see nothing but cars.  And there was no Wi-Fi.  So I turned around and walked back.  Halfway up I somehow got just enough of a signal to find out my flight had been delayed by three hours.  Which turns out to be the same amount of time that we sat still in Zapote.  So I made my flight.  Unfortunately the airline finally decided to board the plane a half hour late and then they sat on the tarmac for an hour before they finally took off.  So of course I missed my connection in Houston.  After waiting in line for an hour and a half I ended up getting a room at the Hyatt and a first class ticket on a plane the next day.  I finally made it home Sunday afternoon.  It was nice to get home to Diane, get unpacked and have a hot shower.  It's back to reality tomorrow.

Best of wishes to Nancy and the Perez family as they begin to use the oven.

Since Jeff left, many wishes have been granted.

8/14/2012 Wish #1 Granted:

 I returned to San Marcos after four long days in Ciudad Quesada (where Chato’s parents live and where Ana spends most of her time).   I had been feeling quite under the weather since August 9^th.  Without going into too much detail, let’s just say my pants have been feeling a bit baggy these days!   

Abuelita Teresa "sobandome" in hopes to remove the "pega"

So, I'm back in San Marcos and Cristina and Laura are taking good care of me.  I got a good "sobada" (when they massage your arms, neck and back to remove the "pega") from the abuela Teresa.  I don't think either of these words have translation that would describe properly their meaning, but after 5 days of feeling like crap, I knew a little home town remedy would do no harm.   IT WORKED!  I had two bowls of soup yesterday and three “pipas” (coconut water).

8/15/2012 Wish #2 Granted:

Thanks to all my Costa Rican family and friends who “wished”’ me a Happy Mother’s Day.  Costa Rica’s celebration of Mother’s Day is a national holiday.  Although I wasn’t able to be with my favorite fourteen year old in the whole wide world (I love you Ana!), I spent it with West, the Perez family and loads of neighbor kids and a surprise little clown who pulled a cake out of our oven!

A Happy Tico Mother's Day to all Mom's EVERYWHERE!

Pipilacha the clown with a nummy cake

8/16/2012 Wish #3 Granted:

Carlos and West tasting the "BEST BREAD EVER"!

Delicious!  Amazing and Exhilarating! Today we tested three different recipes of bread.  I decided to rely on the power of prayer and added a short prayer with the ladies of the house (Abuelita Teresa, Cristina and Laura)!  Not only did the power of prayer work, but our wishes were granted!  The most beautiful loaves of bread created with our own hands, laughter and the love and compassion from all of you who have helped us achieve this amazing dream.

Words cannot express the excitement we all felt when we opened the oven door.  First off, we were overly thrilled that we were actually able to remove the door.  It must weigh at least 50 pounds and was sealed tight from pressure.  We laughed… good thing no one was watching us!  We all agreed that someone needs to make us a new door.  This heavy duty door is awesome for maintaining the head BUT it is just not fun to work with. 

Our first sight of two amazing loaves of bread

The minute we were finally able to open the door and see the bread, we all jumped, screamed, laughed and look at each other with great surprise and excitement!  Minutes later we were planning our marketing tactics for the big community distribution.  We decided that we could easily cook 30 small loaves and distribute them (for free of course) to all those who helped us and stopped by to see our progress.  The word will spread FAST…  Believe me.  This is a small town and “ticos” are good for “chismes”.      

Our first batch of bread is worth a thousand words!

We are still stoking the oven in hopes to have pizza tonight for dinner.  If all goes well, I will blog again tomorrow with more photos of our successes.

Adios Costa Rica

Jeff's last blog from Costa Rica

It's Friday night and I leave in the morning to head back home.  It's sad to be saying goodbye.  Yesterday we got up in the morning and started a small fire in the oven in order to bring up the heat slowly to prevent cracking.  While that was burning we took a trip to a Tilapia not far from San Marcos.  The farm, consisting of three tanks, was built buy its owner after he took a class from the National Institute of Learning.  It's doing a good job of providing money for the family and they have plans to expand it.  The whole thing is run with running water from a streem and requires no power to operate.  While the women and kids we playing with fish in one of the tanks I went off with the owner and with no english from him, to go with my extremely limited spanish., he was able to explain how it was built and how it operates, including regulating the water flow to the tanks.

Nancys San Marcos driving technique

Fish ready for Market

Once the rest caught up they enjoyed some time sliding down the waterfall.  We then were treated to a snack before going back.  Everyone here, no matter what they have, will feed you.

Ana and the dog have the same expression

Once back at the oven we increased the strenght of the fire to get the oven hotter.  Meanwhile I went though all of the baking equipment with Laura and Christina and explained how they're used.  I then taught them a very simple bread recipe.  In order to compensate for the extremely warm temperatures I cut my usual amount of yeast by 1/3 and it still rose way too fast.  They'll have to experiment to see what works.

We baked the bread but not having a strong first heating of the oven or a proper door, it all cooled down too fast and we finished it in the electric oven ion the guest house.  It was late but it sure made a great snack!!

Today, after I a feast for lunch ( ask me about the spaghetti sauce some time)  I was given some very nice home made gifts by the Perez Famiy.  There was a sad goodbye and we took a cab back to Quesada where I will once again sleep on a salon floor before heading to the airport.  More blogs will come soon as Nancy stays behind two more weeks to teach the art of bread crafting.

FIRE in the hole!

WE DID IT!

After an adventurous bus ride to Boca de Arenal then a pick-up truck ride down the windy dirt road into the land of Cutris, Jeff, AnaGrace, West and I made it back to San Marcos.

Bus adventures from Ciudad Quesada to Boca de Arenal

AnaGrace, Jeff and West in the back of the pick-up Truck

After a quick, refreshing snack of fresh papaya, we began our work.  AnaGrace jumped right in as mortar mixer, brick butter-er and general contractor.

Brick laying for chimney prep

We took a quick lunch break and continued with our chimney work.

Jeff and I place the chimney

Just after our afternoon coffee break, a friendly neighbor stopped by (Enrique).  It was time to cut a whole in the roof, but the Perez family had already returned all the borrowed electric tools.  We were at a stand still anticipating that we would have to wait until the next day.  Then, along came Enrique.  He offered to hop back on his horse, retrieve his saw, cut the hole in the roof and help in the final phases on sealing the chimney in place.

Jeff, Enrique and Alberto work to cut the chimney hole

Finally, COMPLETE!  There still is some brick cleaning that needs to be done, two corner bricks to lay, but we are technically done with the oven!  We transferred a few glowing embers onto the hearth, celebrated with pair of well traveled bottles of Lake Superior Kayak.

As you can imagine we are not TOTALLY done with our work here.  Today Jeff and I will spend the day sharing with the family our different bread recipes, testing the oven at low temperatures and teaching them the few techniques we learned during our 5 day course in Gran Marais just 3 months ago.

WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!  We are $300 short of paying all of our bills, we had to tap into the $300 we originally hoped to leave with the family for a few months worth of baking supplies AND we have not yet able to consider cementing the floor of the gazebo.  At minimum we would like to raise $600 more to pay our bills and leave $300 for the Perez family to purchase flour and other baking supplies.  We would love to be able to leave enough money to help them complete the floor of the gazebo.  So, please help us spread the word.  Share our blog with your contacts!  Add it to your Facebook account!  AND consider a final contribution.  It's as easy as clicking on the donate icon of this page!

Lastly, just because we starting our first fire, this is not the end of our journey.  Please continue to watch for new posts.

Hasta la proxima!

Blessing to all!

Memories from John

My time in Costa Rica.  
By John Schwieters

A week ago yesterday after leaving my family in Nicaragua, I spent all day trying to get to the little village of San Marcos de Cutris. After waking up at six, spending all morning crossing the border, waiting for my ride all afternoon in Liberia, and sitting on the side of a road while dealing with car troubles until late in the night, I ended up crashing at the very hospitable home of Chato's parents in San Carlos. I soon discovered the magic of Costa Rican food, and after a huge breakfast Chato and I made the drive out to San Marcos to start our work.

Prepping the walls that we will pour around the 1000 pounds of  fire brick

 
I kicked off my week of oven building by carrying a load of bricks through the poring rain with my new friends, with whom I would construct this masterpiece of a bread oven. During my first couple hours at the house of the Perez family I realized that I could constantly enjoy homemade Costa Rican dinners if chose to, which I did of course! :) the words, "John! Tienes hambre?" became music to my ears very quickly. 

I spent the whole morning cramped in the oven
filling joints and cleaning mortar off the arches we built the previous day

Laying the front facade and chimney brick with my buddy Chato 

Once my time in San Marcos was finished I sadly left the place where so many memories were made, including: meeting many new and interesting friends, sitting in hardware stores for hours at a time, eating all of everyone's food, watching Chato stab himself with my one and only EpiPen, spending all morning filling gaps inside the cramped oven, helping a family and a community with my work, and living as simply as I ever have. 

My final day with the Perez family:
Laura, Alberto, Abuela, Abuelo, me, Cristina and Perez 

I was treated to a wonderful vacation in Tamarindo after this experience in the third world of Costa Rica, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

The amazing sunsets at Tamarindo beach 

West and I checking out the crocs, colorful crabs and lazy howler monkey
during our boat tour  

Final day of surfing with Karen, Ana and Caroline 

Ana, Caroline, Karen and I
taking our last swim in the pool before heading back to Nicaragua 

 I'll never forget all the people I met during this life changing experience, and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Jeff's Dos Centavos

Hola!  Nancy decided to take some time off from blogging so this is Jeff (Jefe) doing the honors.  We got an early start to the work today but not as early as we wanted.   Chato was early pic me up today.  Of course it's the first day I sleep too late.  It was raining and very good for sleeping in.  After a quick first breakfast with my host family I passed on a few gifts to them and paid up for my 5 nights there.   The father, Jose Luis leaves at 4am so I only saw him in the evenings when I returned from work. This is me and my breakfast buddies.

Jebdree, Luis, Kayla and Jeff

When we got to La Casa de Perez it was time for second breakfast. We sit indoors but the doors are open and it's open lath for walls so it's just like sitting outdoors.  I tried not to eat much but it's hard to resist. 

Breakfast, again.

We got the final arch built today and will let the mortar set until we get back in a few days.  It's exciting to see how the whole thing is coming together a little at a time.  Unfortunately we didn't get enough done to use the oven right away when we get back.  I might get a day of baking before I leave.  I hope.  The next blog you get will be from Playa Tamarindo.  Pura Vida!

Nancy and Chato fisinh the final arch.  The keystone is from Lake Superior.  They'll always be remninded of the crew from Minnesota.